Kruger National Park

"The Kruger National Park is an enormous nature reserve stretching three hundred and fifty kilometres along the Mozambican border and being sixty kilometres wide on average. In general most of the park exists out of plat grass and bush covered plains. Better known in South Africa as the savanna or bosveld. The border with Mozambique is clear because of the allways present Lebombo mountain range that forms a natural barrier. There are a number of rivers flowing from east to west within the park. Being the Limpopo, Luvuvhu, Shingwedzi, Letaba, Olifants, Timbavati, Sabie and Crocodile river from north to south.



for a look at the animial distribution of the park, go here!
http://www.krugersafari.com/statistics.html

We left for Kruger at 6am friday morning and arrived there around 2 in the afternoon. We decided, since we hadn't booked anything to do in the evening (ie-a guided sunset/night drive through the park) that we'd drive around a little bit, to see what kind of animals we might encounter.
First was the Impala, a small antelope that is the most numerous animal in the park. They are basically the bottom of the food chain, they're sole purpose is to be food for the other animals in the park. our first sighting was amazing, there were many "ooooh's" and "aaaah's", but as we kept driving, the majesty of the Impala soon wore off. After a while, our next sighting was a herd of Zebras. They were a ways off into the bush, and had we not been on the lookout for animals, we would have missed them altogether. As we continued on, we began to be introduced to more of the parks residents. Next was the giraffe, then followed shortly by a herd of elephants. we were driving along and all of a sudden we spot an elephant eating near the side of the road. we stop to take a few pictures and admire it, but then Rebecca, who was sitting in the front saw "Elephants! Elephants CROSSING the road!!!" we drove a little closer, but not too much and watched as these animals went about there business, oblivious to the paparrazi-like camera clicking from a pack of north american tourists in a blue Volkswagon Chico.

We then came across more Giraffes in our travels, but those were soon tossed to the side as we spied a White Rhino meandering alongside the road not 200 meters in front of us. we got closer, but again, not too close.

We finally decided to call it a day, after being held up by a traffic-jam of Baboons wandering down the road in front of us. We watched as they played, groomed, and climbed the trees looking for food.

the next day was just as eventful, though not as mind-blowing as the first. After your 1000th Impala, you get annoyed that they're not out there attracting the bigger animals to come and eat them. Luckily, we did stumble across a few packs/prides of lions that day. the first was a solitary male lounging on a riverbank. the second was more impressive, although further away. A entire pride of lions with cubs, multiple females and one large male. They were about a kilometer away and you could only make them out with binoculars, thanks to the co-workers at CSIR for lending us a pair!

That night we camped at Olifants, a camp in the middle section of the park. now when i say camp, i mean hostel-like place. what that means is, each camp in the park has to be fenced in, you can't just tent in the middle of the park. thats like tying a steak around your neck and going out to play with the lions. Each camp is like a hotel but with individual houses, all containing 2-3 beds, a bathroom and shower. they're very posh and quite cheap when shared amoung 4 people. Olifants was the best because we were on top of a hill and could look down into the river below. As we arrived at Olifants, we booked a trip on the astronomy tour. which was my highlight of the entire trip. We were drive out at sunset to a lookout point on the hill, over-looking the river. As the sun went down you could hear the hippos grunting and comming out of the water to feed. The hosts of our trip had a selection of snacks for us to munch on as we watched the twilight turn to night. now, for 130 rand i was only expecting pop and maybe chips, but they had a full bar, with wine, beer and even whisky and Gin. I had myself a nice (double) gin and tonic followed by a glass of red wine as i took my seat to watch the stars. the hostess, who is studying astronomy, showed us the southern and norhtern crosses, then the constellations and how to determine south when in the Southern Hemisphere. The sky was clear and the stars were shinning so brightly, it was an amazing experience!

Sunday, we headed back south to book in at Skakuza, the capital camp of Kruger. we had a night drive booked for 6pm. it was cooler on sunday than the rest and you could tell that rain was about to come. as we drove around the park we didn't see much wildlife, but there was an amazing lightning storm, unfortunately followed by a downpour that caused everyone in the truck to want to turn around. it was kind of a bust on the animal side of things, but the lightning and thunder were really cool and enjoyed it.

anyways, that brings us to today, we basically drove around, trying to find a leopard, the only one of the big five (Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Buffalo and Elephant) that we hadn't seen. Unfortunately, no luck. the drive back to Pretoria was fun, but i was glad to be home. CSIR is finally beginning to feel like home now. Now all i have to do is get to work. but i'll leave that for tomorrow!